Storm walloping the Southeast wipes out power to 500k and makes travel ‘difficult or impossible’

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Treacherous driving conditions and canceled flights could keep residents stuck at home for days as a nasty mix of snow and ice grip the Southeast.

“Over 20 million people are under winter weather alerts, over 8 million people are under a flash flood threat, and over 9 million people are under wind advisories,” CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said Sunday.

More than 12 inches of snow will fall Sunday in the southern and central Appalachians, the National Weather Service said.

Snowfall could total 12 to 20 inches over the Appalachians and into the Carolinas by Monday, when the storm is expected to move off the coast, the NWS said.

“Snowfall amounts in some locations will likely exceed a foot and result in several days of difficult or impossible travel, extended power outages, and downed trees,” the agency said.

The storm already has knocked out power for more than 546,000 customers in the Southeast.

The bulk of the outages are in North Carolina, where 244,807 customers are in the dark. In South Carolina, more than 225,600 customers have lost power. And Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia each had about 20,000 and 30,000 customers are out of electricity.

More flight cancellations to come

American Airlines, whose second-largest hub is in Charlotte, has canceled 1,100 flights for Sunday. It’s not clear when those passengers will be able to get on board, since another 320 flights scheduled for Monday already have been nixed.